Cloudy with a Chance of Professional Development

I must admit that I was optimistic at the beginning of the year when we got our PD materials, which included a letter from Michelle Rhee herself promising more relevant and individualized professional development opportunities. I knew it probably wasn't going to happen, but I figured what's the hurt in hoping?

Well, 2.5 months in and I am still desperately wanting more RELEVANT professional development. I know that my students are a minority in the population- they have severe autism that limits their capacities in almost every area. They are working on very basic skills, mostly, and the strategies that have been shared on our PD days fail to apply to them...it's hard to "think, pair, and share" when you cannot even talk. However, instead of trying to provide more helpful and targeted PD (maybe by having us break into different sessions at different schools or providing some choice perhaps?), it's required that I attend school-wide professional development, where we focused on teaching strategies that cannot be applied to my students.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to get another aide in my classroom- this has been shot down and it has been suggested that instead, (among other things) I would benefit from additional professional development regarding classroom management strategies for children with autism spectrum disorders. I COMPLETELY AGREE with the latter half of the statement; I would certainly benefit from additional strategies and support, especially with my volatile group of boys.

Unfortunately, professional development does not magically fall from the sky. So, I am stuck in a situation where people continue to make vague suggestions about what I need to be doing or how my classroom should be working, but do not provide the resources or support necessary to make that happen. And here's the kicker: all these folks who are making proclamations about what I need to be doing differently then commend me by telling me they could "never teach autistic kids" and they really admire me. If you can't do the job, why are you telling me how to do it?! Somehow, that doesn't make me feel better about the advice you're giving me...

Rhee Testifies Before City Council

I was not able to watch Michelle Rhee's testimony before the DC City Council this afternoon, but from what I have read, it does not look like it went well for her. If people were pissed off at her before this, I can only imagine the backlash that's coming now. Among the highlights of the day:

- Rhee, the CFO of the city, and DCPS's CFO were aware of upcoming budget issues this summer, when they hired over 900 new teachers to teach in DCPS.

- Rhee opted not to make any cuts to summer school (as the council had directed), because, according to Rhee "It's [her] understanding [she has] authority as agency head to move budget from one place to another." And "When [the city council] cut our budget by $20 million, [Chairman Gray] didn't call me to ask me if it was okay to cut summer school or not." The failure to make the $9 million in cuts set the stage for the current budget shortfall and subsequent teacher firings.

- When asked why she did not follow the law in regards to funding and cutting teachers, Rhee responded that her decision was "better." Better than the law?

So it boils down to this: Michelle Rhee intentionally and illegally fabricated a budget shortfall in order to fire teachers. Around the time of the RIF she blamed the City Council for the lack of funds, but all this shows that there was room and time for DCPS to make adjustments (not hiring 900 new folks?) to the system before a RIF became necessary.

I think this one speaks for itself. Thoughts?

SPED teachers: Get ready for your job to get more complicated

I'm currently working on a dedicated aide justification form for a student who has had a dedicated aide for 2.5 years. Why, NTOTB, are you working on this form if the student already has a dedicated aide? Well, I'll tell you; someone in DCPS has decided that it would be a good idea to have all the kids who have dedicateds re-evaluated for this need every time their IEP comes up. This means filling out the form, submitting it, having someone come in and observe you to decide if it's merited, and making that decision.

So, this entails filling out a 4 page form and having somone come out and scrutinize your decision to have the kid have an aide. Over the course of this year, I have felt doubted by so many people coming in to my room and I just want to be left alone. The whole policy seems to be suspicious of teachers: do you REALLY need this person in your classroom, or are you just full of crap? It adds more work for us and just makes things more complicated than they need be. I'm tired of jumping through hoops for the sake of other people. I just want to take care of my kids and not feel second guessed at every turn.

I've already felt frustrated because I have been trying to get another classroom aide in my classroom. It is my understanding that I'm supposed to have 2 classroom aides, but I only have 1. I have tried to get another countless times, but the only result of this is having roughly 10000 people (each higher up than the other on the SPED food chain...) come in and observe in my classroom and try to decide if I need more help or not. Having all these people come in and see me shakes my confidence and messes up my kids. I don't even care about getting the new aide anymore...I just want to be left alone!! The last observer felt my aides were not well trained enough (DUH) and I'm frustrated that this is somehow going to reflect upon me, even though I have had no opportunities to train them and have just done my best doing it while I can, while still dealing with absences and having all my aides swiched mid-stream. I feel unsettled and all of this crap falling on me is making it worse.

Also, just thought everyone should have a heads up: buses for special ed class field trips are no longer free. DCPS will charge you $200-$300 for each bus you need. I would recommend either working with a private transportation company or using metro. Woohoo.

"He Only Does that Because you Let Him"

I have some students with some very volatile tempers in my classroom. One, in particular, I have been struggling with since the beginning of last year. He is very possessive of toys and items and when it is time to transition away from these items, he frequently flies off the handle. This student goes from 0-120 in 1 second. By this I mean he goes from being perfectly content to: screaming, throwing things, hitting, kicking, slapping, taking off his clothes, turning over furniture, running away...you name it, very quickly with few warning signs. Over the past year, we have managed to come up with many strategies for easing this issue and have had some success, but I will admit that his anger management is a work in progress. I wish it were better under control, but we can only do what we can at school to manage this problem.

Where my issue comes in is when someone who knows very little about the child thinks they have the knowledge and authority to intervene with the kid or tell me how to do so. In this example, the person is the former bus attendant of this student (an obnoxious and aggressive woman to start). The student was throwing a tantrum on the way out of school on Friday and the bus attendant approached us and said "he didn't act like this on my bus. He does this because you let him." She then tried to reprimand him into showing civil behavior, to no avail. She started talking to me about how "what he needed was a good ass whooping" and how he never did that on the bus and just because he had a disability we didn't have to let him act like that.

I had several problems with this:

1. The kid has no reason to tantrum on the bus. He has access to all of his toys and crap from his backpack. There are no demands placed upon him on the bus and he has nothing to be angry about. Plus, you're with him less than an hour a day, whereas I'm with him 6 hours a day. The likelihood that I'm going to see him do this is greater just by virtue of the amount of time I spend with him.

2. I don't really think that whooping a child is an appropriate way to deal with this behavior and even if I did, I can't do that at school, making the suggestion completely irrelevant.

3. If he did behave for you, its probably because he was terrified of you, which doesn't really work for me when I'm trying to teach me some kids.

4. (and most importantly) I don't "let" him act this way, nor do I use his disability as an excuse. Usually, when he's tantruming, he's just acting like a bratty kid, not necessarily a kid with a disability (although I think impulsivity and lack of care about what people think that come with his disorder probably up the intensity of the behavior). My guess is that in his family of 8 kids, this behavior get him what he wants, as it would be hard for mom to stop him once he gets going and it's easier to give in than deal with the ensuing madness that comes with a tantrum from this kid. Sad, but true. When it works at home, it only makes sense you carry the behavior over into the school environment. This is compounded by the fact that the behavior cannot be ignored because it is so destructive and dangerous that he has to be restrained in some way or another, so he gains at least some attention from doing this (we ignore as much as possible when dealing with it, but it would be irresponsible to allow it to go on unabated).

I just hate this idea that when I child acts out, it is because we are somehow allowing or enabling this behavior. It is true that sometimes, people inadvertently reinforce negative behaviors; I'm sure I've done it in my tenure as a teacher. But when I am working my butt off to try to deal with a behavior and you waltz in for 10 seconds, acting like you are a freakin' child development expert (with a brilliant suggestion that someone just beat him...thanks a lot), it really doesn't help me at all. I can scream until I am blue in the face, but that is not gonna stop this kiddo once he gets going. Do we need to try to head this behavior off at the pass? Absolutely. Do we need to minimize the damage done if it can't be prevented? Totally. But is it your business or your place to try to tell me how to do my job and imply that I am somehow incompetent or enabling in dealing with these tantrums? Nope. \

Just because I am young and smile every once in a while does not mean that I accept misbehavior or abuse from my kids. But I also don't have magical classroom management powers or an unlimited arsenal of people, time, and resources to devote to this behavior. I don't try to tell you how to do your job. So why don't you not tell me how to do mine.

Aplogies All!

I apologize whole-heartedly for being absent from blogging for almost 2 weeks. Hopefully, you'll be able to understand after you hear all that's happened.

The biggest issue for me has been serious understaffing. From 2 weeks ago until today, at least 1 of my aides was out every single day; 2 of them were out last Monday and Tuesday. This translates to my classroom being completely nuts for the past 2 weeks. Literally, a couple of days I just had to be in survival mode and make sure my kids made it out in one piece at the end of the day. By the time I got home, I was too exhausted to do anything, especially blog. Thus, you get the short version of that story, which is probably good because all I would have done for the past 2 weeks is complain about nothing and who really wants to hear that?

I do have to admit, though, that having one of these folks around is looking like more of a curse than a blessing. She exerts no control over her student whatsoever and makes no effort to do so. She was moved into her position (as a dedicated aide) after aide-gate 2009 happened in my classroom and they shifted all the aides around the school to make sure all the kids were taken care of; not sure how this aide ended up with me, but thats beside the point. She complains to the principal about it daily and insists she be switched back to her old position, all the while sucking at her current one. Principal insists she will not move this person again and is just currently encouraging me to "wait it out" so this woman will quit. But I don't think she's going to quit: I think she's going to continue to do a crap job until the kid gets hurt or she does something that my principal seems egregious enough to get fired for (not sure why she hasn't been yet...she's been written up several times. Not going to go into specifics here, but believe me...).

And honestly, I don't have time to wait for this woman to quit. The student has lost enough time under her.

It's gotten so bad under her that the student's father came to school today to observe him and stayed all day. Apparently, the aide has been telling the bus attendant all kinds of exaggerated crap (that goes from her, to the attendant, to the aftercare the kid goes to, to the parents...great) and is insisting she cannot get in touch with them. So this comes to them as ludicrous info and "the teacher cannot get in touch with you," even though I spoke with them on the phone last night! Apparently, the bus attendant verbally attacked the parent today about his kid at school and everything (the attendant has been very aggressive towards me before) and the father wanted to come in and get clear on everything. Well, he stayed all day and seemed very happy with me and less-so with the aide. The most frustrating part for me was that the student was PERFECT all day under the supervision of his dad. The man hardly had to say anything and the student was awesome. Now, this is a double edged sword- the parents admit that they do things at home for punishment that we cannot do at school, and I cannot rule my classroom through fear. At the same time, its really frustrating to see a kid behave wonderfully and know that he can do it for dad and not do it at school.

I just wish we could reach a happy medium for this kid; I can keep him in check, but he has an aide because of his behavior and she is not up to par and I cannot be with him 24/7 in school. That's why he has an aide. Keeping the woman in the position out of spite just doesn't cut it. So what does it take to get a kid a good aide?

Reflections on the RIF

Anyone who knows anything about DCPS knows that there was a Reduction in Force on Friday, resulting in 229 teachers and 159 other school staff losing their jobs.

Now, of course, this has resulted in finger-pointing, name calling, and a complete lack of transparency on many people's parts (Standard Operating Procedure for DCPS, really). Rhee blames the City Council for not providing the money required to allow all of these teachers to keep their jobs. City Council member Vincent Gray the DC City Council fired back with a press release accusing Rhee of using the council as a scapegoat in executing her master plan of getting rid of large numbers of DCPS teachers.

In this case, I'm in Gray's corner. The numbers just don't lie. It's just another example of the lack of transparency Rhee feels she is entitled to. When I came here, I thought I liked her: I am among the legions of teachers she's supposedly replacing the entire DC teaching force with and I support a lot of the ideas she proposes. But both her behavior and her attitude are counterproductive and arrogant; since I have been here, she has done nothing but alienate, obfuscate, and out and out lie.

Now, are there teachers in DCPS that shouldn't be teaching? Absolutely! Should they be gotten rid of? Certainly. But is this really the best way to do this? How could principals have been expected to evaluate all of their staff within the short period of time they were given (especially because they were asked to use a fairly involved document to do so) and the RIF? And if principals knew last year that these were bad teachers, why didn't they 90-day plan them last year, as opposed to taking the cowardly, DCPS enforced route out?

I am especially disheartened when I hear stories like this one one of a RIF-ed Anacostia High Teacher. I cannot pretend I know all the facts in this case, but it sounds pretty awful: she received "exceeds expectations" last year on evaluations from her previous administrator and was fired by a new one, who had not taken the time to do any substantive evaluation on her. Anacostia was reconstituted last year, so with the loss of 2 SPED teachers in their 2nd and 3rd years of teaching, almost everyone in the SPED department is a first year TFA-er. Wow- not sure about you, but I think it would scare the shit out of me to be teaching high school in DCPS as a new, alternative-certification teacher with absoulutely no one to turn to for guidance. Good thing they have months of awesome training that lets them survive completely on their own...oh wait....

I'm curious to see if the RIF actually sticks, as I'm sure many lawsuits have already been filed and we know this is only the beginning of this saga. Please feel free to share stories, opinions, or insight about the RIF in the comments section or email me at thenewteacherontheblock@gmail.com .

Observation: Success!

I had my post conference for my observation today and it went really well. I'm very happy with my score and the whole process seemed fair. I have some complaints about the inflexibility of the rubric, as some of the issues are harder to apply in my classroom (trying to address 3 different learning styles effectively in 30 minutes may be too much jumping around with my kids, for example) but overall, it was a good experience.

So, I'm not sure how other observers have been told to rate, but I thought I would share my experience to allay some fears:
- 4's were definitely given. Several of them. So to the people who were told that this is not happening: apparently, it is.
- The judgment did not seem particularly harsh and my observer was helpful in brainstorming with me about ways to incorporate some of the less applicable-seeming areas of the rubric to my observation, at least to help "play the game."
- She empathized with the reality of teaching in an autism classroom and the challenges it brings (i.e. outlandish behaviors, lacking staff...)
- The rubric is obviously not perfect for everyone and its inflexibility is frustrating, but hopefully observers can help people meet it without breaking their backs. Also, a couple of lower numbers are not going to kill your score and it'd be hard for a lot of folks to get all 4s, so do what you can and let it be.

The system is not perfect, I certainly admit. But I feel more comfortable with it now that I have been evalutated. I hope everyone else has positive experiences with it as well. Please feel free to ask any questions about the process or the eval.!